San Francisco's iconic Ocean Beach amusement park, Playland at the Beach, closed its gates for good nearly four decades ago. Even so, its legacy lives on in an El Cerrito museum and a new documentary. We look back at the park which gave us Laffing Sal, the Big Dipper rollercoaster and the Its-It ice cream sandwich -- and which influenced the development of Disneyland.
Host: Scott Shafer
Guests:
- James Smith, San Francisco historian and author of "San Francisco's Lost Landmarks" and the forthcoming book, "San Francisco's Playland at the Beach: the Early Years"
- Marv Gold, former employee of Playland at the Beach and member of the Playland-Not-at-the-Beach advisory board
- Richard Tuck, master of fun at Playland-Not-at-the-Beach in El Cerrito, a museum and amusement center which houses thousands of artifacts from Playland at the Beach
- Tom Wyrsch, filmmaker behind the documentary, "Remembering Playland at the Beach"
More info:
- Screening times and tickets for "Remembering Playland at the Beach" : at BalboaMovies.com
- About El Cerrito's Playland-Not-at-the-Beach : at PlaylandNotAtTheBeach.org

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Saturday, March 20 marks the seventh anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. But some families observe a different anniversary -- the day they got word that a loved one died during military service. We talk with family members of those who died about how they're coping with their loss.
Host: Scott Shafer
Guests:
- Bonnie Carroll, major in the Air Force Reserve and executive director and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), which she founded following the death of her husband, Brigadier General Tom Carroll, in an Army plane crash in 1992
- Kathleen Grace, mother of 19 year old Casey M. LaWare, who was killed in a fire in Iraq in 2005
- Stefanie Tomlinson, former Marine Corps widow who lost her husband, Steven Begehr in a 1995 military aircraft crash
- Walter Williams, case manager at the Employment and Training Program at Swords to Plowshares

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Michael Krasny talks with David Shenk, author of "The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ is Wrong." Shenk's other books include "The Forgetting," "Data Smog" and "The Immortal Game."
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
- David Shenk, author, correspondent for TheAtlantic.com and contributor to National Geographic, Slate, The New York Times, Gourmet, Harper's, The New Yorker, NPR and PBS
More info:
- About the book "The Genius in All of Us" : at Amazon.com

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Hundreds of cases of alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests have come to light in Germany, Ireland and Brazil in recent weeks. We discuss the alleged abuse and what it means for the Catholic Church.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
- Barbara Dorris, national outreach director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
- David Francis, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, based in Germany
- Jim Donahue, president and professor of ethics at the Graduate Theological Union
- Maurice Healy, director of communications and outreach for the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Get the Flash Player to see this player.